Very nice article, and he has great ideas.
However for Star Citizen he needs to stop ‘looking forward’, and just set a goal and keep to it 
I would love to see that world he envisions, but if he keeps chasing after each new toy, it’s never going to be playable I’m afraid.
That’s my biggest fear after every time he does one of these interviews.
That is a very common fear among backers. And it is not entirely unfounded.
But I think he has a few people around him that reign him in as necessary. A lot of what we have seen as new things CR is chasing over the past few years have actually turned out to be part of a bigger picture that makes more sense when viewed from a different point of view.
That is not to say that he is all about the new latest greatest technology…but that it has more balance to it than it first appears.
From what we understand, there’s Erin, there’s TonyZ.
I have no idea how much of Ben really makes it to Chris’ Ear, but there’s several developers that want the game to be 1. Difficult, 2. Rewarding, and 3. Consistently Hazardous. I have trust in Eric as a PM, I have trust in Erin as a manager. I have trust that CR will eventually make the right choices.
Do you guys think with that type of time frame for the game that there will always be ships for sale for real money? I wonder about mudflation and the pay to play model, like an STO has. Some of you guys are really into the development. How do you predict that will work out?
That question comes up often. The official response is that once we reach Beta the current process of concept sales will end. The only ships for sale at that point will be starter packages.
Of course all things can change and I expect there will be some tweaks to that rule. We do know that all ships will be available in game for in game currency, aside from very specific ships like the Raven and the AMD racer. Those were tied to physical purchases from other companies and cannot be released in the game due to license agreements.
My take on it is this, and this is only my opinion not the word of CIG but based on watching the development for the past few years.
When the game hits beta it will be a soft release with all of the basic game features in place. From there we will see continued development of those features, and new ships added to the game.
As new ships are added they will be available in game if you have the UEC and the reputation to buy them. There will also be special edition models that are cash only, which are effectively no different from the ones for sale in game except for some special paint jobs or leather seats or whatever. So basically you will be able to buy the ship with cash if you are willing to buy the special version with flair included.
The game has to pay for itself some how. They have said they will continue to sell UEC for cash, so that is one way to get money to spend in game, but it will be limited to a certain amount each month, similar to how it is now.
I would not be too concerned about it becoming a pay to win type of game. That is one of the hardest things to explain to people who come from games like WoW or other gear focused games. This game is about player skill first, or it is supposed to be. So far they have stayed pretty true to that claim, but as I said anything can change.
We will see how things go, but I suspect that they are relying heavily on revenue from SQ42 to fund future developments.
Thanks for taking the time to answer. I love reading all the insights you guys post on here.